Secrets & Songwriting
by vulnera-sapientia
Summary: Austin & Ally have parted ways after ending their partnership on bad terms. While one's life changed for the better, the other has had a pretty rough go of it. How will they react after encountering each other after so many years of hate? Will they be able to make amends to each other? I suck at these, but read the first chapter, it gives you a general idea :)
1. Prologue

**Hey guys, hope you enjoy this! There will be other character appearances further on in the story :)**

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><p>"I guess this is it, Austin."<p>

Austin Moon took a deep breath as he leaned in to give his best friend Ally a hug. He buried his face in her hair as she tucked her head under his chin, their two bodies fitting together in a familiar position they'd shared for years.

"I don't want to say goodbye yet," he murmured into her hair. He felt her shake with laughter, but when he pulled back there were tears spilling from her brown eyes.

"Hey," he said, wiping her tears with his thumbs. "I should be crying. I'm the one who has to go on tour." She gave him a weak smile.

"I still can't believe you're going to be away for an entire year," she said, her smile wavering. "What am I going to do without you?"

He smiled softly. "Trish and Dez will still be here. Trust me, this year will fly by, and then I'll be back and we can celebrate your eighteenth birthday together, I swear. I'll even write a song for you."

This got a genuine smile from her, and Austin felt his heart glow. There was nothing more that made him feel good inside than one of her smiles.

He hated having to say goodbye to Ally. If it were up to him, she would be joining him on his first tour, but her life was here. He couldn't ask her to drop everything just so he wouldn't have to suffer from missing her. Besides, she really wanted to do well this year so she could get good grades for college. She was planning ahead, which was both good and bad. Good, because she was well on her way to getting into a good school, and bad because he wouldn't see her every day like he was used to.

Just the thought of not seeing her made him want to cry, but he wouldn't – not in front of her. He needed to be strong, show her that it wouldn't be so bad.

"I'll call you every day," she whispered, grabbing his hands in hers.

He squeezed them tight. "I'll be expecting a call. Don't forget, okay? Promise?"

"Promise," she agreed, and they embraced one more time.

"I'll see you in a bit," he whispered into her. He felt her nod, and then reluctantly pulled away from her when he heard Jimmy calling.

"Austin, you said your goodbyes? Time to go!"

He sighed, trying to keep a smile on his face. "Well, this is it. You leaving now?"

Ally shook her head. "I'll wait a little longer."

"I'll see you in a year." Austin squeezed her hand one more time before turning around to leave. As he walked away, he hesitated for a second and turned back.

"Are you okay-" Ally started, but was interrupted when Austin kissed her. His lips were soft on hers as she started kissing him back, her hair was soft in his hands as he stroked it, and it took all his strength to pull away. He rested his forehead against hers, their eyes closed.

"Don't forget, okay?" he whispered. Before Ally could respond, Austin had walked away and gotten on his new tour bus.

As they drove off, Austin could make Ally out behind them, her eyes glistening.

Despite her effort, Ally couldn't keep her promise.

Despite his sincerity, Austin didn't keep his either.

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed! Suggestions and constructive criticism are always welcome, so let me know what you thought! Thanks!<strong>


	2. First Dates & Familiar Faces

**Disclaimer: I do not own Austin & Ally**

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><p><strong>Two years later<strong>

Ally's face hurt from fake smiling.

The restaurant she was in was amazing, but it couldn't distract her from the terrible date she was having. The guy was attractive, but so incredibly… dull.

She'd met him in one of her college classes; a guy with lots of money and little talent. He'd asked her out a couple times already and she'd accepted this time, though somewhat reluctantly. It had been a while since she'd been out, and he'd somehow convinced her, and she decided she deserved it after studying so much anyway. Plus the restaurant he'd said he was taking her to was absolutely beautiful, and she felt like being a little spoiled for once.

Right now, however, she was starting to wish she was at home working on her assignments.

She continued to smile and nod as her date described his music career, and how soon enough he'd be getting a record deal. She knew for a fact he wouldn't be getting anything close to that – he simply wasn't talented enough to make a career out of this, he didn't have a big enough presence. Not like…

She shifted in her seat, that uncomfortable feeling returning whenever she thought about her former best friend.

When he'd first gone on tour, things had been fine. They'd called and texted each other every day. But it had only lasted a month or so before Austin's tour commitments and Ally's extra activities got in the way of their friendship. Whenever Ally called, he was performing, rehearsing, or resting up for the two. Whenever Austin remembered to call, Ally was working or studying.

And then Austin had signed on for a worldwide tour… a month before Ally was to turn eighteen. Because of the commitment, Austin didn't make it to her birthday like he promised. He didn't even wish her a happy birthday until a few days after with a thirty second phone call. With his busy schedule, he'd completely forgotten. Not that she'd minded at the time; he was a superstar, how could she expect him to remember something so small?

They hadn't spoken for a couple of years now; she didn't even know where he was at the moment. Still touring, of course, but she wasn't sure which country he was in. He was huge though. Every time she turned on the damn radio, one of his songs was playing. Trish often texted, asking if she'd seen him on the news or heard about whom his new rumoured girlfriend was. Ally tended to ignore these.

Honestly, she was a little bitter. She'd fooled herself for a long time into thinking she'd been a top priority in Austin's life. She'd been his friend, his partner, and at one point, his girlfriend. And he'd forgotten all about her within a year of leaving. It hurt. But she preferred not to dwell on the past, and if she didn't dwell on the past then she didn't have to think about the betrayal.

"So yeah," her date, Ethan, was saying. "I'm thinking I might add a little rap into my music later on, reach a wider audience when I make it big."

He continued on as Ally stared at him silently, thinking back on how she'd gotten to this point. When she'd moved upstate, she initially struggled. Her manager had understood her decision to hold off on her record deal until she finished studying at the New York Music University, and she'd been grateful. She wanted to fulfil her dream of graduating before going professional, but it had come with its own drawbacks.

"Holy crap," Ethan muttered quietly, interrupting her thoughts. "Is that who I think it is?"

Ally turned her head towards the door, and she swore she felt her heart skip a beat.

Standing in the front entrance, waiting for a table, was Austin Moon.

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><p><em>This can't be happening, <em>she thought to herself in a panic.

As she watched Austin and another man talking to the restaurant manager, she felt her chest constrict. All the old feelings and all the old resentments came flooding back, crushing her so much she felt like she was suffocating. When she saw him turn and start walking toward to the tables, her palms started sweating.

She didn't want to see him. She didn't want him to see her. She and Austin hadn't been friends for a while; their relationship was in the past and she didn't feel like reliving old memories. Already she was remembering that night, the last time she saw him. She hated it. If she was lucky, he wouldn't look her way, she could fake a headache to her date and they could leave. Austin would be none the wiser and Ally wouldn't have to look him in the eye, knowing that this boy, now a man, was completely oblivious to the pain he caused her.

While Ally was trying to come up with an escape plan, her date was contemplating whether to approach Austin Moon or not. The need to talk to a superstar won out over his nervousness and he got out of his chair just as Austin and the man beside him were walking past, blocking their path. Ally could only watch in horror as he reached his hand out.

"Hey," Ethan said awkwardly. "I'm a fan. I'm actually planning on going into the music business myself and you're a giant inspiration for me."

Austin had looked to be caught off guard for a second before grabbing Ethan's hand and giving a friendly smile. "Thanks, man, I appreciate it. And good luck with your music."

Ally tried to make herself as small as possible in her chair as Ethan remained in place. "Uh yeah, thanks," he said, gaining confidence. "I mean, I'm pretty good. But nowadays it's all about the contacts you have. I bet you know all kinds of people in the music industry."

Austin raised his eyebrows, still smiling. "Yeah, I guess I do. But I wouldn't know anybody if I didn't try my hardest and have the support I do. As I'm sure you know. Your beautiful girlfriend here is probably your number one supporter, am I right?"

Austin glanced over at Ally and her heart stopped. For a moment she hoped he hadn't recognised her, but that hope was soon diminished when he did a double take. He looked back at her and his jaw dropped.

"Ally?" he asked in disbelief. Ally took a deep breath to compose herself.

"Hi Austin," she replied, amazed at how calm she sounded. She watched his all too familiar eyes roam her face as she looked at him.

Ethan's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head. "Ally, you know Austin Moon? Why didn't you say anything when I pointed him out?"

Ally shrugged, still looking at Austin. "Sorry, Eth. I think I was just a little in shock." She didn't really know why she called him Eth, but it felt good to see Austin's eyes narrow at her. Only for a second however, and then he was grinning.

"Wow, it's been a while," he said. "Must be about two years now."

Ally gave him what she hoped looked like an emotionless smile. "Something like that."

Austin knitted his eyebrows for a moment and then spoke again. "I'm in New York for the rest of the week. I hope we can catch up while I'm here."

Ally shrugged disinterestedly. "I'm not sure I can-"

Ethan saw an opportunity to cut in. "Why don't you two catch up now? We've got room for one – I mean two more – at our table. Won't you join us?"

Ally froze as Austin looked at Ethan. He glanced back at her, expecting her to second the offer. When she stayed silent, he frowned.

"I don't know-"

"Oh come on, sit down. We insist. Right, Ally?" he said, looking to Ally for confirmation. She hesitated before smiling and nodding, a knot forming in her stomach. "Sure. We insist."

Austin raised an eyebrow at her and then grinned at Ethan.

"Okay, sure. You've twisted my arm."

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed! Let me know if there's anything I can improve with my writing or story line or something :)<strong>


	3. Date Crashers & Damage Control

**Okay, so I'm not really sure if anyone will still be interested in this, but I've been trying to get back into writing and so here is a chapter for you guys!**

**Super sorry about being slack, I've had some serious writers block. Anyway, enjoy. The next chapter won't be too far away.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

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><p>"So, Ally, how have you been?"<p>

Ally wanted to run. She had no desire to sit here with this man and tell him how she'd been since he'd last seen her – since he left her and never came back. But she needed to be an adult about this; she needed to show him that leaving hadn't hurt her.

With as much confidence as she could muster, she answered. "I've been great. Ethan and I both study at the Music University of New York." She glanced over at Ethan and smiled. She didn't notice Austin grimace slightly.

He grinned when she looked back at him. "That's great, I'm glad you ended up attending. When I left Miami I figured you'd come up here, but I never got around to asking Dez."

"Well, you probably have more important things on your mind these days," Ally said tightly, but kept the smile on her face. Austin frowned at her but didn't say anything in response. Ethan broke the uncomfortable silence.

"So, who was that guy with you before?" he asked. The man that had accompanied Austin into the restaurant had offered to wait elsewhere while he caught up with Ally.

Austin smiled at Ethan. "He's my publicist. We came here to talk a little business over dinner."

Ally saw this as an opportunity to get rid of Austin. "Oh, if we're holding you up, don't feel obliged to stay here. We were about to finish up when you walked through the door anyway."

Austin cocked his head at her. She remembered how cute she used to find it when he did that – usually when he got confused or suspicious about something.

"If I didn't know any better, Ally, I'd think you were trying to get rid of me," he said with a raised eyebrow. Ally laughed humourlessly.

"Why would you think that?" she asked in response. "We're friends. At least we were last time we talked. When was that exactly?"

Austin looked over at Ethan and then back at Ally. "Ally, I'm really sorry that I didn't try as hard as I could have to keep in touch, but our friendship was a two-way street. You can't tell me that you didn't have commitments that you chose to put above calling me."

Ally shook her head. "Yeah, I did. Because I still needed to work to get what I wanted. You already had everything you wanted, Austin. And then you forgot about the people you left behind, the people who helped you. You moved on without me, you moved on without any of us."

Austin sighed. "I tried as hard as I could, Ally. My schedule was hectic, I didn't have enough hours in the day to sleep, let alone call you. I'm not making excuses, trust me, and I missed you guys like crazy. But we haven't seen each other in a long time and I'm trying to reach out right now. Can't you just forgive me? We can use this week to catch up."

Ally sat there listening to Austin try to win her over, just as he always could in the past. She'd forgotten how persuasive he could be. He was waiting for her to forgive him, to agree that they could pick up where they left off.

Not this time. He could think what he liked; she wasn't going to forgive him for ignoring her for over two years. Remembering that Ethan was there as well, she cleared her throat and stood up. It was time to leave. Ethan and Austin stood with her.

"It was nice seeing you, Austin, but I don't think I can catch up this week. Maybe next time you're back. Ethan, I'm ready to go. Could you take me home?"

Ethan raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure? We can totally stay a little longer if you want-"

"Now," Ally replied, interrupting him. "Please."

Ethan nodded, and then looked over at Austin, who was staring at Ally. "Ally-"

Ally smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. "Next time you talk to Dez, let him know we ran into each other. He'll be thrilled."

She turned around and started walking towards the door before Austin could say anything else, but she could hear Ethan mumbling to him. When she got to the main entrance, she turned around just as Ethan caught up to her. He was holding what looked like tickets in his hand.

"Austin gave us two VIP tickets to his concert this weekend, isn't he cool?"

Ally sighed, but gave him a smile. "The coolest."

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><p>Austin watched Ethan follow Ally out the door, the tickets he just squeezed out of him visible in his hand. He hadn't wasted any time in asking for them.<p>

"Could you help me out, man to man? I really like Ally and I want to impress her. Plus, you guys could catch up again. Maybe Ally will be in a better mood after she's had a good time at your concert."

Honestly, if anyone else had asked him for tickets, he would have handed them over a lot sooner. His fans were the reason he was at this point in his life, the least he could do was give out some free passes.

Ethan, however, made him hesitate. Maybe it was because his demeanour screamed rich kid who expected everything to be handed to him, or maybe it was because he wanted the tickets to get close to Ally, but he suddenly didn't feel so charitable. But it was in fact for Ally, and he wanted her to come, so he handed over two of his VIP passes in the hopes that he would get to see her one last time before he left New York.

After he could no longer see the couple, he turned around and walked further into the restaurant, finding the table his publicist occupied. He sat down and sighed heavily.

"I ordered for you," his publicist, Mark, stated. "I know you like steak. Did you catch up with your friends?"

"Just the one," Austin replied distractedly, staring at nothing. "Ally. The guy was her boyfriend I think."

"The same Ally that used to be your partner?" Mark asked curiously. Austin nodded slowly.

"One and the same."

Mark chuckled. "I take it the catch up didn't go as well as you'd hoped."

Austin scoffed. "That's an understatement. I swear the room temperature dropped twenty degrees when I sat down at their table."

Mark shook his head. "Well, you're in town for eight days. Maybe you can do a bit of damage control while you're here. Speaking of damage control, we managed to squash those dating rumours of yours."

"Thanks," Austin breathed out in relief. "It's crazy, I can't say hello to a girl without wedding predictions being thrown around. Honestly, though, they give me way more credit than I have. I don't think I'd seriously be able to land half the girls they pair me with."

Mark laughed, drawing attention from the nearby tables. "Now you know that's not true, but I'm glad to see that you're still as humble as when I met you. Now, for the main reason we're here. I know that you've thought a lot about it, but I want to make sure you're absolutely certain. Announcements are going to be made by the end of the week about you starring in your first movie. There's going to be a lot to do once everything is made public, are you ready for this? We can push the announcements back, or we can tell them to find someone else because of tour clashes-"

"I want to do this," Austin replied, interrupting Mark. He smiled. "I think this will be a good experience for me, something out of my comfort zone. Who knows, I might even be good at it."

Mark raised his eyebrows. "Knowing you, it wouldn't surprise me if you became the next Leo."

This time it was Austin laughing loudly, earning curious glances from the diners. "Yeah, I wish."

After that, their meals were delivered and a comfortable silence settled over the table. Austin was indeed excited for his very first movie role, but as he looked over the restaurant, his good mood disappeared when his eyes fell on the empty table he sat at earlier with Ally.

Ally Dawson. His best friend. At least, she used to be, before he completely destroyed what they had.

He had lied to her tonight, when he'd told her he hadn't known if she was in New York or not. He'd known she'd been living here since before she moved upstate – Dez had told him as soon as she decided to go. Dez was the only person who he still kept in constant contact with these days. Trish still talked to him of course, but it wasn't often, and it was hard for her to still be friends with him when Ally so clearly hated his guts.

A couple of weeks ago, Austin had finally asked Dez what Ally's address was so he could go and talk to her. He wanted to apologise for being selfish and ignorant, he wanted to beg for her forgiveness and convince her to give him a chance to be her best friend again. He knew it would be hard to get her to listen to him, which was why he was planning on going this afternoon. That way, if he didn't convince her then, he'd pester her like the nuisance he was until she did.

Unfortunately, Mark had called him and asked him to dinner to talk about the movie and go over everything for tour presses. As luck would have it, he ended up coming to the same restaurant that Ally was on a date in. When he saw her, he couldn't believe his eyes. Out of all the days, all the restaurants, Ally was sitting right in front of him. Her hair had been longer, he noticed, and lighter than he remembered. Those eyes were still the same, though. A dark chocolate brown, just looking into them gave him warmth. They pulled him back to two years ago, when he kissed her goodbye and promised to call her every day.

He told her that she'd put her commitments above their friendship, but that wasn't completely true. It was most definitely his fault that things fell apart. When his tour slowed down near the end, he'd had plenty of time to call; the fact of the matter was he didn't want to.

That first year had not flown by, it had dragged on and on, getting slower by the day. His only solace was knowing that he could go home to Ally and his friends at the end of it. And then the tour had been extended, and he had been so tempted to call Ally; or better yet, leave his commitments and go back to Miami. But he'd worked so hard to get here, and he didn't want to risk losing it by hearing Ally's voice and giving it all up.

So he'd stopped calling. He'd stopped calling and pretended like everything was fine as he extended his tour, knowing that in reality he had just compromised one of the most important things in the world to him. So over two years after seeing her, he was finally finishing up his tour and would be working on a movie that gave him more spare time than he'd had in a while, which meant he could finally mend things between him and Ally.

Trouble is, he had a long way to go, and he wasn't sure if one week was enough to achieve that.

Well, he needed to try. He'd wasted enough time; he needed to see Ally. Again.

He stood up from the table, his steak barely touched. Mark looked up at him curiously.

"Going somewhere?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"If you've got nothing else to discuss," Austin replied in determination, "there's… kind of somewhere I need to be. I'll catch up with you again tomorrow at rehearsals."

Mark shrugged. "Go ahead. And good luck, it sounds like you'll need it."

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><p><strong>There we go. Now, the characters might seem pretty OOC, but it's just how I imagine they would be after how long it's been and how they've grown as people.<strong>

**Thanks again :)**


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